Mount Clemens school board orders monthly cuts

The new Mount Clemens Board of Education is taking an aggressive approach to eliminating its budget deficit in an effort to stave off a state-appointed receiver.

Board members on Jan. 16 voted 5-2 to have the administration cut $200,000 from the budget each month from January to June in order to meet its goal of reducing the deficit by $1.8 million for the year. Some school officials say if the reductions are not made, the state could throw out the board and administration and install a receiver to run the district.

“We are in prime territory to be taken over by a state receiver if we don’t take meaningful steps,” said Trustee Ed Bruley.

Advertisement

School board President Earl Rickman and Trustee Patrick Maceroni voted against the move, saying it amounted to micromanaging the administration. They feel the size of the cuts is too large not to negatively impact classroom learning.

“I can’t imagine where those cuts will come from,” Maceroni said. “I know we have to make some drastic cuts, I just don’t think this is realistic.”

Superintendent Debra Wahlstrom acknowledged she doesn’t know where the cuts will be made. In order to meet the benchmark for the February school board meeting, the finance department will have to cut $400,000 combined for the months of January and February from a $17.2 million budget.

“If we do have to cut $400,000, we will impose a great burden on everyone affected by it,” Wahlstrom said.

Mount Clemens Community School District is one of 41 districts in Michigan posting a budget deficit in recent years and has come under increasing scrutiny by the state departments of education and treasury.

Three school communities are now under the guidance of state-appointed receivers, which have the power to hire and fire personnel and make other critical financial decisions impacting education.

Faced with falling per-pupil revenue tied to declining enrollment, Mount Clemens has a $4.7 million accumulated budget shortfall at the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year. If Mount Clemens fails to get the red ink under control by 2015, it faces a takeover.

The plan advanced by the district and approved by the state calls for $1.8 million in reductions this year. But the plan is based largely on the sale of extra school property such as the Alexander Macomb building, which is currently being leased to a church. The administration has invested $33,000 in a consulting firm to help secure a buyer.

The plan also includes securing $350,000 in employee concessions in 2014-15, reducing the 100-member teaching staff by nine effective this semester along with four teaching positions next year, and gaining voter approval for a millage to create a sinking fund to address infrastructure repairs.

Bruley’s motion to begin deeper budget cuts is a much more aggressive approach than past boards have taken on the deficit issue.

A former Macomb County commissioner with long-standing ties to the Democratic Party, Bruley is one of three new members elected in 2012 to the school board. The others include Maceroni, a police officer and son of Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Peter Maceroni, and Jeanine Walker, a youth minister. Board members receive no financial compensation.

School officials met with state officials last month to review the reduction plan and Mount Clemens’ progress in meeting its goals. Board member Laura Kropp said they were told the school board could be removed from office if the red ink is allowed to fester.

“We were told ‘You won’t be making the decisions — we will’,” she said of the state education department’s view of the budget scenario.

While Mount Clemens administrators remain hopeful the improved economy could result in a buyer for the property up for sale — the largest part of the reduction plan — the new board majority feels that isn’t likely to happen within the next six months. That’s why they feel more urgent action is needed to be taken.

“If we don’t start looking for places to cut until June, we all will be gone and it won’t matter,” Bruley said. “These people are serious.”